Feb 17th- 201's- Aquaponics, thermo-electric battery

Spencer made a lot of progress with the fish feeding mechanism:

While the fish tank was moved:

and some experiments were done with a thermo-electric cell, which was able to power an LED:

Feb 15th- 201's- Aquaponics, etc.

Toby took a pennyboard for a spin:

Meanwhile, the aquaponics team began moving the large tank:

while Spencer worked on the electronics:

and Tharun made another batch of lavender soap:

Feb 15th- GRNG 101's-Updates

Plants/Materials Group:

Some of the plants dried out a bit due to the snow days, but Sarah brought them back to life with some H2O:

Bikes Group:

The friction wheel on the generator was hitting the base and wobbling, so per Dr. Tupper's advice a wider plywood base was added and now it works much better:

Algae Group:

 One jar was turning pale green yesterday, but with an adjustment to the bubbler and more food, it came back to a beautiful green. An additional jar was also set up:

Aquaponics-

An additional float tray was constructed for the new additional system:

Feb 14th-XPlorers- Plastic Milk

Plastic Milk(Handout)
Part 1 Making the “Plastic”

1. Gather the necessary materials. ...
2. Heat 1 cup of milk. ...
3. Add four tablespoons of vinegar to the milk and stir. ...
4. Pour the warm milk through the strainer. ...
5. Scoop the clumps out onto paper towels.

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-%22Plastic%22-out-of-Milk
plas·tic   plastik/       noun

1. a synthetic material made from a wide range of organic polymers such as polyethylene, PVC, nylon, etc., that can be molded into shape while soft and then set into a rigid or slightly elastic form.

 Plasticity is the general property of all materials that are able to irreversibly deform without breaking, but this occurs to such a degree with this class of moldable polymers that their name is an emphasis on this ability.

Feb 8th- Xplorers- Chair Design

Day 2 of Chair Design- students are to build three(3) miniature prototypes of chair designs.

The variety and originality in the designs was impressive!

February 8th-201's/301's

Soap samples from Soap Group:

Discussion about forming an LLC in Massachusetts.

/* Blink without Delay

  Sample code- blinks 3 LEDs at 3 independent rates
  using millis() function


*/

// Set Pin numbers:

const int redLED =  13;// the number of the LED pin
const int greenLED = 11;
const int pinkLED = 9;


// Generally, you should use "unsigned long" for variables that hold time
// The value will quickly become too large for an int to store

unsigned long previousMillisRED = 0;
unsigned long previousMillisGREEN = 0;
unsigned long previousMillisPINK = 0;


// interval at which to blink (milliseconds)

const long intervalRed = 1000;
const long intervalGreen = 100;
const long intervalPink = 10000;


void setup() {

  // set the digital pins as output:
  pinMode(redLED, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(greenLED, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(pinkLED, OUTPUT);

}

void loop() {

  unsigned long currentMillis = millis();

  //---control Red LED-------------

  if (currentMillis - previousMillisRED <= intervalRed)
  {
    digitalWrite( redLED, HIGH );
   
  }

  else if ( (currentMillis - previousMillisRED > intervalRed) &&  ( currentMillis - previousMillisRED < 2 * intervalRed))


  {
    digitalWrite( redLED, LOW);
   
  } else {

    previousMillisRED = millis();

  }

  //Control Green LED----------

  if (currentMillis - previousMillisGREEN <= intervalGreen)
  {
    digitalWrite( greenLED, HIGH );
    
  }

  else if ( (currentMillis - previousMillisGREEN > intervalGreen) &&  ( currentMillis - previousMillisGREEN < 2 * intervalGreen))


  {
    digitalWrite( greenLED, LOW);
  } else {

    previousMillisGREEN = millis();

  }

  // Control Pink LED-----------------

  if (currentMillis - previousMillisPINK <= intervalPink)
  {
    digitalWrite( pinkLED, HIGH );
  }

  else if ( (currentMillis - previousMillisPINK > intervalPink) &&  ( currentMillis - previousMillisPINK < 2 * intervalPink))

  {
    digitalWrite( pinkLED, LOW);
  } else {

    previousMillisPINK = millis();

  }

}

Discussion of newspaper articles in TAB and Newtonite about bike shelter project

February 8th- 101's- Bikes, Plants

Bikes Group-

    successfully mounted generator, added friction tape to get better speed. Motor puts out > 13V when bicycling.

Plants group-

Worked on getting air-pump system working. Used snoop to troubleshoot small leaks.
One bicycle pump is broken. Suggested that all joints be epoxied, and that they use a small container so that the system will be more portable.

Algae group-

Algae seems to be growing well. Discussion about how to extract the oil from the algae- French press??

Aquaponics-

New lights seem to be working well. pH question.